Page 3 Advertisements Column 4

Patea Mail, Volume I, Issue 77, 8 January 1876, Page 3

1 Extract from “ Public Health,” No. 5, Vol. HI., February Ith, 1870. j PRECAUTIONS AGAINST, THE SPREAD OF TYPHOID FEVER. Drawn up hr- AVTi.mam Oolk. M.A., M.D., Oxon., F.R.G.P. Loud., Medical Olliccr of Health lor tllu combined districts'of East Herts ; ami circulated hy the Sanitary Authorities. U , fcjnVPHOI!.), enteric, or gastric lever 1 are the names given to one and the sunn 1 infections disease, this buing a fever produced hy excreinental poisoning and almost invariably accompanied hy diarrheea. Of all excreinental matter, the most poisonous is that which comes from persons themselves ill with the fever ; and it is principally hy means oi their stools that the disease spreads from one person to another. The poison may he taken in hy breathing the ellluvia from these discharges, or irom the privy, cesspool, or drains into which they have been emptied ; or hy drinking water from wells into which they have soaked ; or hy swallowing particles that have adhered to clothes, bedding or other objects, and thence been accidentally transferred to articles ot food or cooking utensils. Destruction of the fever poison in the stools, the moment these leave the body, by means of disinfectants, and (inasmuch as the action ol disiniectauts is not thoroughly certain) the safe disposal of the stools themselves, are the means hy which we should try to prevent the disease from spreading. Let all persons, therefore, who would keep themselves ami their neighbours free from infection, observe strictly the following rules slinohl the disease occur in their houses; 1. Remove at once from the sickroom all carpets, curtains, and other objects likely to get fouled. 2. Keep every one whose presence is not absolutely necessary out of the sick room, and hy means of open windows and open doors give the patient as much fresh air as possible. 8. Put a piece of waterproof sheeting under the bed clothes, in the middle of the bod, so as to prevent the bed from getting soiled. 4. Put a teacnpfnl of the following disinfecting fluid into abed-pan or other vessel each time before the patient uses it, and add some more immediately after ;.—Soda water, a gallon ; sulphate of iron (i.c., copperas), a pound; carbolic acid (the common impure kind), half a pint. In preparing this lim’d th« iron should lirst he dissolved hy stirring in boiling water, and the carbolic acid added when the iron is dissolved and the fluid cool. Remember that carbolic acid is a poison ; keep the mixture therefore in a sale place. The same tin id may he used with great advantage to disinfect aftj accumulation of filth, such as a dnßg-pit or cesspool. As a general rule- two quarts will suffice to disinfect one cubic foot of foul matter. 0. Take care that fln * discharges are thoroughly mixed with the disinfecting fluid, and then cany them immediat; ly into the garden or fh Id, and bury them in a deep trench, previously dug for the purpose, as far as possible from any well or ottier water supply. On no account let them he thrown on to a refuse heap. If the house he in a town, and without a garden, so that the stools must of necessity he thrown down the closet, add a double all owance of the disinfectant, and take care that the emptying he done without splashing the seat, and that, the closet he flushed until basin and pan are thoroughly clean. (!. Let bed and body linen, immediately it is taken off, be put into a tub of water, to which carbolic acid has been added, in the proportion of half a pint of acid to a bucket of water. Have the tub and fluid ready prepared and at hand before the linen is taken off. Let the linen soak in this for two hours, and and then lot it be actually boiled in washing. On no account must the linen be sent to a laundress without thorough previous disinfection, nor without informing her of its character, so that she may not wash it with the linen of other persons, 7. Let the nurse observe the most scrupulous care to keep everything clean. Let her wear a dress of washing material, as this is more easily disinfected than wool. As her hands must almost unavoidably get soiled in helping the patient, let them wash them frequently in water to which some disinfectingilnid has been added, and let her take care that the water thus used, as well as all other slops, ho emptied carefully into the garden trench. 8. When the illness is over, the bed if soiled, should ho burnt; or the tick or sacking cover may bo disinfected hy thorough boiling, and the flock or straw stuffing burnt. Should there be a disinfecting oven available,the stuffing of hair mattrnssos may ha teased out and then disinfected by baking at a temperature of ioOdcg. F. Otherwise this also should be destroyed. The floor of the sick room and the bedstead and other furniture should be thoroughly scrubbed with soft soap and carbolic acid. All the implements and utensils that have boon in use in the the sick room should be well scalded. The dress worn by the nurse should bo disinfected with carbolic acid and boiled as directed in the sixth paragraph. 0. If fever be in your neighbourhood but not as yet in your bouse, take t-ho